Halloween has never been a Christian holiday, and it has no place in the life of a born again Believer in JESUS CHRIST. In fact, it is an abomination to God, and we should take our stand firmly against it. As we look at its history, we find that its roots go deep into heathenism, paganism, satanism and the occult; and its modern expression is no better.

HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN

Celtic New Year

October 31 is the most important day in the satanic year. [It is known as the devil’s birthday.] It marks the Celtic new year. It was the end of the growing season. It became a festival of death. On this day, the god of the Celtics was to have called up the spirits of the wicked dead who had died during the past year. At the same time, other evil spirits arose and went about the countryside harassing the people. On October 31, the Celtics expected to be harassed by ghosts, evil spirits and demons; and it was no fun and games to them. They would light bonfires to guide the spirits to their own town and to ward off evil spirits.

DRUIDS

The Celtics had priests called druids. On October 31, the druids went from house to house demanding certain foods, and all those who refused were cursed. The people were tormented by means of magic. As they went, the druids carried large turnips which they had hollowed out and on which they had carved demon faces as charms. Each one was believed to contain the demon spirit that personally led or guided that priest: his little god.

DIVINATION

Those who practiced fortune telling and divination found that this was the night that they had the most success. They called upon satan to bless their efforts. One form of divination was to put apples in a tub and bob for them. The one who first successfully came up with one without putting them in his teeth was to have good luck throughout the year. They would then peel the apples and throw the peeling over their shoulders and then quickly look around. They expected to see a vision or an apparition of the one they were to marry.

SACRIFICES

These things happened several centuries before CHRIST. Sacrifices were made to the gods, especially the god of death – Samhain (pronounced Sah win). Sacrifices all the way from vegetable to human were offered. This went on and on, and, in some parts of the world, still goes on today.

8th CENTURY

In the 8th century, the Pope, in an effort to get the people to quit the festival of Sam hain, invented All Saints Day (Nov. 1). This was an attempt to get the people to turn away from the horrible observance of Sam hain. All Saints Day was intended to honor the martyrs of the Roman persecutions. It did not work! It never works to Christianize a pagan holiday. The holy and the profane do not mix.

THE MIDDLE AGES

In the Middle Ages, there was a great revival of satanic practices and witchcraft and magic – like there is today. During this time the belief developed that witches traveled on broomsticks to the black Sabbaths to worship satan on October 31. They were guided by spirits in the form of black cats. The Druids worshiped cats believing them to be reincarnated evil people.

CHURCH INVOLVEMENT

This festival of death has survived all the efforts of the church to stamp it out. The church is joining the opposition by celebrating this festival.

All Saints Day became All Hallows Day. Hallow means holy or sacred. October 31 is the evening before All Hallows Day and came to be called in the western world all hallows evening and then all hallows een. Een is an abbreviation for evening. Finally, the word was reduced to the way we have it today, Halloween. That’s where the name came from, and even if it is called all hallows evening, it has nothing to do with Christian faith, and it never did.

MODERN HALLOWEEN

Now let’s look at the present day celebration of Halloween. Isn’t the whole theme one of darkness, death, fear, threats, destruction and evil? There are witches, broomsticks, bats, owls, ghosts, skeletons, death, and monsters. You dress up your children as demons and witches and ghouls and monsters and werewolves and send them out into the street in the darkness to reenact the Druids’ practice of demanding food from people under threat of tricks (or curses) if they don’t comply.

You take, not a turnip, but a pumpkin and carve demon faces in it and decorate with it.

At Halloween there will be apple bobbing, divination, fortune telling, haunted houses, candles lit and spirits called up. There will be seances and ouija boards in the name of fun and excitement. There will be sacrifices of dogs, cats, rats, chickens, goats and even humans!

You say, “Well, we don’t take it seriously.” But the devil does and so does God. Particularly this is true when the Church which He purchased with His own precious blood builds houses of horror in its fellowship halls so that the little lambs who have been entrusted to its care can be terrified and opened up to invading spirits of fear and torment and confusion.

ALL HALLOWS’ EVE, or Halloween, originated in the 7th century AD. It was celebrated on 13 May and was a night for remembering deceased saints and martyrs. The date was later changed to November 1 in order to Christianize the pagan holidays Beltane and Samhain–festivals of summer, winter and fire.

The Catholic Church attempted to make a very popular pagan festival an official holiday of Catholicism. But the truth is that Samhain was celebrated for many centuries before “Halloween” was ever invented. In fact, there are many groups that celebrate Samhain even today.

A lot of Protestants did not approve of “Halloween”. In many areas of early America, Halloween was considered to be so evil that it was banned. But later on as waves of immigrants from Europe came over the celebration of Halloween began to spread and today it has been overwhelming accepted by most of society.

When I was growing up, most children would dress up as ghosts, cartoon characters or super heroes on Halloween.

But today, Halloween has become much more “edgy” and much more “seductive”.

“Halloween costumes for 7- and 8-year-old girls and even younger have become downright titillating, and for tweens and teens, the vast majority of those sold in stores and on the Internet are unabashedly sexually alluring.”

But is this a good thing? In a recent article for the Washington Times, Tricia Owen lamented how depraved Halloween is becoming….

What’s happened to Halloween? I live around the corner from one of those pop-up costume shops, and looking in the window is truly frightening. Not because of all the ghouls and goblins, but because of what can only be described as the debasement of Halloween. There are the sexy nurse, sexy teacher, sexy witch, naughty nun – a seemingly endless supply of not sexy, but R-rated costumes.

Since when did Halloween become an excuse to dress so, well, slutty?

Unfortunately, the truth is that Halloween was never an “innocent” holiday. It is just that mainstream America is quite a bit more eager to embrace the darkness of Halloween these days.

Most Americans are completely unaware of it, but the reality is that some very, very bizarre rituals take place on Halloween night. For some, Halloween night is the most important night of the year.

There is a reason why many animal shelters and pet stores refuse to adopt out black cats in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

“This is a time when blood rituals take place,” said Hedy Litke, director of animal placement at the ASPCA. “Black cats are often sacrificed.”

Once again this Halloween, there will be cats, dogs and other animals that will be tortured and/or sacrificed.

The people that work at animal shelters day in and day out know what is going on. The following is from an article in the Baltimore Sun….

“As horrible as this may sound, cats are tortured around Halloween time,” said Deborah Thomas, executive director of the Maryland SPCA, which for years has enforced a virtual moratorium on black cat adoptions in the days before Halloween. “It’s just incredible what people will do to cats, as if they don’t have any feelings.”

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Reportedly, black cats and white cats are the ones most commonly used in these rituals, but as an article in the L.A. Times noted, these groups will use cats of any color if they are desperate….

“There are also so-called religious groups that sacrifice animals,” said Leslie Eppick of the Glendale SPCA. “If desperate, they will take any cat, no matter what color.”

For those that love cats, stories like these are absolutely horrifying. How anyone could treat cats this way is absolutely inconceivable.

But this stuff really happens.

In fact, if you are squeamish, you might not want to read this next part.

In recent years, there has been an explosion of interest in the occult in the United States. Some of the most popular books, television shows and movies have been about vampires, witches, warlocks, ghosts and dark supernatural phenomena.

Unfortunately, some people seem to want to act out these things in real life. For example, down in Florida recently an 18-year-old girl was charged along with four others of beating a 16-year-old boy to death.

What was so strange about this was the fact that the 18-year-old girl actually believes that she is part vampire and part werewolf.

Stephanie Pistey confirmed assertions by police in Parker, Fla., that the people involved in the July murder of 16-year-old Jacob Hendershot were in a vampire cult. Pistey, who was arrested last Monday and charged with accessory to murder, said she sees herself as a modern day Dracula.

“Since I was like 12 every fiber in my body, basically everything, I know this is going to be crazy, but I believe that I’m a vampire and part werewolf,” Pistey told WBBH-TV.

Sadly, this is not just an isolated incident. Just check out the following description of another “vampire crime” that comes from a recent article by the Christian Post….

Just a few months ago, a 19-year-old in Texas, claiming to have been a 500-year-old vampire needing to be fed, broke into a woman’s home, threw her against the wall, and tried to suck her blood.

Whether you want to deny it or not, the truth is that there are some people out there that take this stuff very, very seriously.

For many of them, Halloween is the highlight of the year.

You see, it is not just cats that are abused and sacrificed on Halloween.

Children are often involved as well.

You won’t find it very often in the mainstream news, but the reality is that a lot of people have come forward with stories of what really happens on Halloween night.

If you don’t want to believe what they are saying, then don’t believe it.

But that doesn’t mean that it is not happening.

You can view video from a documentary of one ex-Satanist describing his involvement in horrific blood rituals on Halloween night right here.

Do you think that he is lying about the sacrifice of that little girl and about how the Satanists would drink her blood?

Many people simply do not want to believe that such things are going on in America.

Sadly, a lot of people have come forward with tales of ritual abuse. The following is what one blogger shared about her memories of Halloween abuse from childhood….

Some of my earliest memories of the ceremony and worship of the dark side that I experienced here follows. One of the hardest involved being up in the canyon at the lodge where they gathered. Very late into the night of the moons shining upon them they would begin. After the normal families left and the “die hards” lit the bonfire and continued to binge on the feasts and drink the hard booze it would commence. There was a man who was the leader. He would “all gather, lets get this thing on the road” and cheers would sound up as the wild tones would echo. I and other kids, children of the others there were in a cabin like building. The big kids would then get the little kid that was chosen by the adults. That night it was me.

There are some groups that actually use “breeders” to produce babies that will be used for child sacrifices. The following is what Nancy Dunn (who was raised in a Satanist family) recently told CBN….

“My father worked in the aerospace industry. My mother worked for a doctor. On the outside just looked normal, but nobody knew what was going on behind closed doors.

My father was actually a Satanic high priest, so he did all kinds of evil things. He sexually assaulted me, took me to satanic rituals. My father actually used me as a baby breeder, which means I was impregnated so the Satanists would have a baby to sacrifice to the devil in their Satanic rituals. As soon as I was able to have a baby, I was pregnant.”

As I mentioned earlier, it is very controversial to discuss the dark side of Halloween.

There is stuff going on out there that is absolutely unimaginable.

A lot of people do not want to acknowledge the real life nightmares that happen during Halloween, but refusing to acknowledge them will not make them go away.

In short, if you are really a Christian, you shouldn’t be celebrating this holiday.

Take another day, take you children for a hayride, a pony ride, apple cider, teach them how to make a real pumpkin pie and roast the seeds………Yes celebrate fall, Thank the Good Lord if you have food on your table and a roof over your head and maybe if you can donate time, food, money or even old clothes, blankets, coats to the homeless.

But don’t celebrate a Pagan holiday if you are Christian. You’re being fooled, deceived, tricked if you do and profess to be “a child of Christ”.

Truth Be Known: Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
Truth Be Known was created in 1995 by independent scholar of comparative religion and mythology D.M. Murdock, also known as “Acharya S.” Acharya’s work is designed to bring to light fascinating lost, hidden and destroyed religious, mythological and spiri